One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a gas coupler for connecting gas components and pipes to a substrate processing chamber.
In the processing of substrates for the fabrication of semiconductors, displays, and electronic circuits, materials are formed on a substrate by, for example, oxidation, nitridation, ion implantation, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes. The substrates can be semiconducting wafers or dielectric displays. In chemical vapor deposition processes, a deposition gas is introduced into a chamber and energized by heat and/or RF energy to deposit a film on the substrate. In atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes, monolayers of atoms are deposited on a substrate to form elemental or compound layers by CVD type processes. In PVD, a target is sputtered to deposit layers of target material on the substrate. In etching processes, a patterned mask comprising a photoresist or hard mask, is formed on the substrate surface by lithography, and the substrate surface exposed between the mask features are etched by an energized gas to form features, such as interconnect lines, gates and barriers. The deposition and etching processes, and additional planarization processes, are conducted in sequence to process the substrate to fabricate integrated and other electronic circuits.
In such fabrication processes, a gas delivery system is used to deliver a process gas to the substrate processing chamber. The process gas can contain gases which are corrosive or hazardous, thus, the gas connection joints of the gas delivery system should be entirely sealed from the fabrication lab environment. The gas delivery system should also be able to transport gases supplied from process gas canisters which often contain these gases at high pressures, without leakage from the gas connection joints.
The gas delivery systems use gas couplers to couple gas components to gas pipes leading from the gas source to the gas component or from the gas component to the process chamber. The gas components can be, for example, gas pipes, gas valves, check valves, stopcocks, mass flow controllers, volume flow controllers or pressure regulators, any of which can be connected to gas pipes. The gas couplers have to be sufficiently strong to withstand the pressure of the gases passing through its internal conduits and external joints without excessive leakage. The gas coupler should also be able to form properly sealed joints with external gas pipes and the connected gas components to prevent leakage of gas from the joints. It is also desirable to be able to easily fabricate the gas coupler using conventional fabrication processes.